Businessman gets suspended sentence over child sex charge

Posted Wed Mar 9, 2005 2:00pm AEDT

A high profile Sunshine Coast businessman has avoided a jail term after pleading guilty to using the Internet to procure a child for sex.

Last April, police arrested Frederick John Burdon, 51, at a fast food restaurant in Brisbane after he had organised through an online chatroom to meet a 13-year-old girl, who was actually a police officer.

The Noosa man pleaded guilty in the District Court to one charge of using the Internet to procure a child to engage in a sexual act and another charge of using the Internet to expose a child to indecent matter.

The former chamber of commerce and Rotary club president was jailed for 18 months, wholly suspended.